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The syslog-ng application is a flexible and highly scalable system logging application that is ideal for creating centralized and trusted logging solutions.

The syslog-ng application is a flexible and highly scalable system logging application that is ideal for creating centralized and trusted logging solutions. The main features of syslog-ng are summarized below.

Reliable log transfer: The syslog-ng application enables you to send the log messages of your hosts to remote servers using the latest protocol standards. The logs of different servers can be collected and stored centrally on dedicated log servers. Transferring log messages using the TCP protocol ensures that no messages are lost.

Secure logging using TLS: Log messages may contain sensitive information that should not be accessed by third parties. Therefore, syslog-ng supports the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol to encrypt the communication. TLS also allows the mutual authentication of the host and the server using X.509 certificates.

Direct database access: Storing your log messages in a database allows you to easily search and query the messages and interoperate with log analyzing applications. The syslog-ng application supports the following databases: MSSQL, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

Heterogeneous environments: The syslog-ng application is the ideal choice to collect logs in massively heterogeneous environments using several different operating systems and hardware platforms, including Linux, Unix, BSD, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Tru64, and AIX.

Filter and classify: The syslog-ng application can sort the incoming log messages based on their content and various parameters like the source host, application, and priority. Directories, files, and database tables can be created dynamically using macros. Complex filtering using regular expressions and boolean operators offers almost unlimited flexibility to forward only the important log messages to the selected destinations.

Parse and rewrite: The syslog-ng application can segment log messages to named fields or columns, and also modify the values of these fields.

IPv4 and IPv6 support: The syslog-ng application can operate in both IPv4 and IPv6 network environments; it can receive and send messages to both types of networks.